Echoes of Time is REALLY GOOD!
I finished it in single player on Normal and Hard modes already. Half way through in Multiplayer with my friend. (We only play once a week for about a couple hours.)
The thing that I really like about this game as opposed to RoF is that the multiplayer is fully integrated into the "story mode" . . . I really REALLY can't understand why they didn't do this with RoF. It would have made that game instantly great had they.
I also really like that the story has a very nice twist (ish) at the end.
And I love that Square is NOT homophobic. If you're playing a female character and you "rescue" that girl in the Town from the love-obsessed guy, he acknowledges you as a lesbian couple. WITHOUT making a joke at "your" expense. That's awesome!
Here's what I DON'T like about game:
1) The graphics are still FAR inferior to the gorgeous graphics on the original GameCube game. Yes, I know it's a DS and for the DS they are great . . . still, I wish they'd just made this for the Wii only with the GameCube graphics.
2) The world still feels too small. Having it all take place in one tiny area of the kingdom was fine for RoF, but now this one too? What I really liked about FFCC was that it felt like an odyssey with all the different continents and towns. Yes, I know for the story structure of this game, a more intimate setting was needed . . . Still, it's not quite my cup of tea. I like epic journeys.
3) As great as the multiplayer is, I don't like that I can't see what the main character is reading without having to lean over my friend's shoulder and look at his screen. It's annoying. I know it even makes more sense for my character to not "hear" what they're saying if I'm not near them, but it's still irksome.
4) The angle that the fixed camera is at. I MUCH preferred the angle that FFCC was set in. Maybe that angle wouldn't work so well with all the jumping around they have in the DS games. If that's the case, then:
5) Jumping. I hate jumping in these games. It makes things that should be easy much too frustrating. There are multiple times I had to reach some seemingly easy platform and kept jumping to my death never quite reaching it until I randomly did. Annoying.
That's it. Other than that, the game is pretty much perfect!
